Tuesday, 26 January 2016

Andromeda Sun - Introspective Soul, album review


Richly Now

This is an interesting release, not ostensibly retro despite the bandcamp tags of 60’s pop rock blues rock psychedelic rock rock and roll Portland, though it is the last one that perhaps says most for its musical richness, being a home of such in many ways. There are elements of lo-fi in the recording, as with second Feel the Heat, yet opener Welcome Yourself and third Mountain on its Knees have a rich complexity in their crafting and performance, horns and violin in the latter in particular adding depth. The band have in Peter McCoid [lead vocal I am guessing; unless Ian Harris on keyboards from picture below] a singer with a raw but confident range and style, the jazzy emotion in fourth Fearless Now of Forever being evident. I like fifth Dance Around the Fire with its strong guitar chords and singing, both aroused to, respectively, fuzz and gritty sass as the song progresses. There is a 60s feel to some of that lead guitar in its garage-pop, and then more delicate piano, guitar and female vocal sticks its collective head through the open door. There’s blues in sixth Peace is Free, wah-wah date-checking, and trombone being just a little different. The following two tracks Blooming and Endless Sky slow the pace, so there is languidness, sweet reflection, emotive rises and floating harmony: not in that order, and not limited to that, but again confident in its unadorned but fresh performance. I’ll just mention one more, Andromeda Sun Pt 2, which is a fulsome blues with fulsome vocal and punchy instrumentation. A fine band and songwriting that does much more than echo of before.

And I’ll just mention the ending in particular of penultimate track Mother Nature Takes Care of Me which is rousing stuff.

Buy here, naming your price.


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